Never let it be said that anything the Yanks can do, we can’t try to do better. Drawing on the awesome imagination of a country well versed in having its youth make up stories with action figures, Britain is proudly producing an equivalent to puppet war spoof Team America. Except this time, there’ll be no strings attached.
Jackboots On Whitehall posits that Germany defeated England in World War Two, but that the hardier Scots fought them back and won out for freedom and justice and… and… haggis, or something.
It’s being directed by Edward McHenry, who impressed the producers at Swipe Films with his script for the movie, as well as short film Baptism Of Fire, which uses the same, jerky action figure animation – but no stop-motion or strings – as Jackboots will employ.
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And McHenry’s script has attracted quite the quality cast of British thesps – Tom Wilkinson, Alan Cumming, Richard O’Brien, Richard E Grant, Goodness Gracious Me’s Sanjeev Bhaskar and Rosamund Pike are all lending their tonsils to the movie’s soundtrack, which kicked off recording yesterday ready for the action figures to start work early next year.
"It's Team America in style and tone but without the strings," Swipe’s Frank Mannion gushed to Variety. "We are using specially made Action Man type action figures, and purpose built models of Hadrian's Wall, Downing Street, etc. It is a tribute to the script's originality and to Edward's directorial vision that we have assembled such a starry British cast lending us their extraordinary vocal and comedic talents.” We’ll say.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed for quality, though the last time Britain tried a World War Two farce, we got Churchill: The Hollywood Years. And we’re still drinking to forget that one. Cheers!
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